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Why I Write for Children
When I was growing up, we lived three houses from the school. Every morning, my mother stood at our front door to wave goodbye, both
of us smiling. Maybe I knew I was going to do well in the spelling bee, or perhaps I held June roses wrapped in wax paper for my teacher.
On days when I was sad or afraid, I'd walk backward, careful not to trip over the edges of the cement stones, watching my mother's
face until the last minute. There was the day of the math test when I wasn't sure about how to carry from one column to the next, and the day my best friend, Peggy Shopmeyer, moved to Hollywood,
Florida, forever.
Worst, I think, was fifth grade. That year my teacher wore glasses without frames. They glinted in the light and hid her eyes. She
seemed so different from Sister Raymonda,
who had bubbled up with laughter and bent over our desks to admire our writing efforts. This teacher was angry when someone forgot to bring homework, or an absence note, or a box of crayons for art. I was terrified of her.
But my mother. . .
One side of the school faced my house and I could go to the pencil sharpener and see her at the window, or tossing blankets in the
air as she made the beds, or bent over working in the garden.
After school we had the talking chairs in the dining room. I'd tell her about my day, my disasters, my triumphs. I'd listen to
stories of her childhood: how she faced four schools in one year and her father's death when she was nine. Those stories gave me courage.
Sometimes I wondered about Catherine in my class,
who came to school one day with a new name. I thought about Vincent, who lived so far from school: on winter days, his cheeks were red with cold; on rainy days the back of his shirt was wet and his socks were left to dry on the radiator. I wondered what happened to Peggy. How hard was the new school? Did she find another friend to take my place?
As I write for children, I think of my mother waving, or making the beds where I could see her, or sitting in the talking chair in
the dining room. I know how lucky I was.
Childhood, I think, is so much harder than adulthood. I marvel at children who are uprooted, children who manage to go off to a new
school facing the world of the unknown, children who lose friends, whose pets get lost or die, children who hear the tapping of trees at the window and don't know who is outside. I think of children
I taught who hadn't had breakfast that morning, or even dinner the night before. They face each hardship for the first time and have so little reserve to help them through. So many have no mother
waving to them at the front door.
I guess I want to be that mother. I want to tell children that all of us have problems in our growing-up years: Lily in Lily's Crossing had to face the changes in her life, Beast in Beast in Ms. Rooney's Room, his inability to read, Matthew inMatthew Jackson Meets the Wall, a new house and a new school. In my new book, Pictures of
Hollis Woods, Hollis spends her days aching for a family. I want to say that others share the same problems and find the courage they need.
I love writing. I love shaping stories. I love to think about children curled up reading my books. I hope I'm the one who is waving
at the door: Have courage, you're not alone. •
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About the Author:
Patricia Reilly Giff is the author of many books for children, including the
Kids of the Polk Street School books, the Friends and Amigos books, and the Polka Dot Private Eyes books. Her novels for middle-grade readers include Lily's Crossing, a Newbery Honor Book and Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor
Book, and Nory Ryan's Song, an ALA Notable Book, a Best Book for Young Adults, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and a Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
Golden Kite Honor Book. Ms. Giff lives in Weston, Connecticut.
Recent books by Patricia Reilly Giff include:
Picture of Hollis Wood (Wendy Lamb Books/Random House, 2002)
All the Way Home (Delacorte, 2001)
Nory Ryan's Song (Delacorte, 2000)
Lily's Crossing (Delacorte, 1997)
To contact this author or illustrator, please use the information for his or her publisher provided on our list of CBC member publishers.
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